Experience 10,000 years of history—including Ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Mexico and Central America—all right here in Philadelphia at the Penn Museum.
Ancient Food & Flavor is an indoor-outdoor exhibition that examines foodand plant remains—tiny treasure troves of data that reveal people’s decisions, diets, and traditions. Stroll through a hidden garden. Learn about how ancient communities planted crops, hunted, ate, and drank, based on leftovers from thousands of years ago—including 6,000-year-old strawberry seeds, 600-year-old potatoes, and samples from bristlecone pine trees in California that had already been growing for about 900 years when Ramses II ruled ancient Egypt.
The new multi-sensory Eastern Mediterranean Gallery showcases 4,000 years of innovation in a cosmopolitan hub that continues to impact the world today—from the origins of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity to the invention of the alphabet. Touch replica artifacts. Smell frankincense, an ancient ritual scent. Peer inside a cargo hold modeled after a 14th-century BCE shipwreck. Explore with interactive screens and learn more about how diverse people from Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Cyprus, Syria, and the Palestinian Territories once collaborated across political, religious, and geographic lines.
Another exhibition, U-2 Spy Planes & Aerial Archaeology zooms in on top-secret aerial reconnaissance materials from the Cold War, with 15 high-resolution photographs offering 70,000-foot-high views of ancient archaeological sites.This year’s Wawa Welcome America Free Museum Day is a last chance to see the Egypt Gallery before it temporarily closes for a monumental makeover–as the Penn Museum prepares new Ancient Egypt and Nubia Galleries, featuring a palace fit for a pharaoh! The current soaring gallery is lined with statues depicting many of ancient Egyptian gods, goddesses, and rulers, such as the seated statue of the pharaoh Ramses II (1290-1224 BCE); a special section on the Afterlife; a sarcophagus lid depicting spells from the Book of the Dead (in hieroglyphs); and a golden mask from the 3rd century BCE.
Click here to reserve your tickets. Select the time slot for your party’s arrival on Friday, June 30th–and you can stay as long as you’d like. Online reservations are required to enjoy free admission.
